Manuel Maria Ponce
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Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948) was a distinguished Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and Mexican music enthusiast researcher, connected the concert scene with a usually forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore. Constant citation of harmonic and formal traits from traditional song within his works characterised some of his compositional periods.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Originally born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, only a few weeks after his birth, his family moved to the city of Aguascalientes and lived there until Ponce was 15 years old.
He was famous for being a "musical phenomenon"; according to his biographers, he was barely four years of age when, after having listened to the piano classes received by his sister, Josefina, he sat in front of the instrument and interpreted one of the pieces that he had heard. Immediately, his parents had him receive classes in piano and musical notation.
[edit] Travelling years
In 1901 Ponce entered the National Conservatory of Music, already with a certain prestige as a pianist and composer. There he remained until 1903, the year in which he returned to the city of Aguascalientes. This was only the beginning of his peregrination. In 1904 he travelled to Italy for a superior study of music in the School of Bologna.
He studied in Germany between 1906 and 1908.
[edit] Years at the National Conservatory
After some years abroad, Ponce returned to Mexico to become a teacher for piano and history of music, back at the National Conservatory of Music, from 1909 to 1915, and 1917 to 1922. He interrumpted his work as he travelled from 1915 to 1917 to La Habana, Cuba.
In 1912 he composed his work "Estrellita" (little star), which is not a normal love song, as is usually thought, but "Nostalgia Viva" (live nostalgia).
That same year, Ponce gave in the "Arbeau Theater" the memorable concert of Mexican Popular music that, although he scandalized by the ardent defenders of the European, came to constitute a fundamental landmark in the history of the national song.
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), who met Ponce in Paris in the 1920's, wrote: "I remember that I asked him at that time if the composers of his country were as yet taking an interest in native music, as I had been doing since 1912, and he answered that he himself had been working in that direction. It gave me great joy to learn that in that distant part of my continent there was another artist who was arming himself with the resources of the folklore of his people in the struggle for the future musical independence of his country." [1]
With valuable activity of promotion of the music of the country and with melodías like "Estrellita", "A la orilla de un palmar", "Alevántate", "La Pajarera", "Marchita el Alma" and "Una Multitud Más", Ponce gained the honorable title of "Creator of the Modern Mexican Song . He was also the first Mexican composer of popular music that projected its music to the foreigner: "Estrellita", for example, has been part of the repertoire of the main orchestras of the world and countless singers, although quite often the interpreter ignores the origin of the song as well as the name of the author.
He was married to Mrs. Clema Ponce, next to whom he died in Mexico City, Mexico. Before that he received the "National Arts and Science Prize".
His body was buried in the Roundhouse of the Illustrious Men in the Pantheon of Dolores in Mexico City. In his honor there is a board of recognition by the state of Aguascalientes in the base of the column of The Exedra, next to the fountain from a spring dedicated to this musical poet, in his childhood and young adult City of Aguascalientes, where he first was introduced to the music studies.
[edit] Music
Ponce wrote music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra. His piano and guitar works outnumber those dedicated to other solo instruments within the set of pieces we know.
[edit] Guitar music
Ponce's guitar music is a core part of the instrument's repertory, the best-known works being Variations and Fugue on 'La Folia' (1929) and Sonatina meridional (1939). He also wrote a guitar concerto Concierto del sur dedicated to his long time friend and guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia. His last known work was written in 1948, a few months before his death. It was entitled Variations on a Theme of Cabezón. It is unclear whether the variations are indeed based upon a theme by Antonio de Cabezón, or if the theme was the work of Ponce's teacher, the organist Enrico Bossi.
- Canciones populares mexicanas, La pajarera, Por ti mi Corazon, La valentina
- Sonata mexicana (1925)
- Thème varié et Finale (1926)
- Sonata III (1927)
- Sonata clásica (1928)
- Sonata romántica (1929)
- Variations and Fugue on 'La Folia' (1929)
- Homenaje a Tárrega (1932)
- Sonatina meridional (1939)
- Variations on a Theme of Cabezón (1948)
[edit] Piano works
According to oral testimonies and contemporary press, the composer was himself an extremely developed piano performer.
- Quatro Danzas Mexicanas
- Intermezzo
- Balada Mexicana
- Mazurcas
- Concierto romántico
- Scherzino a Debussy
- Scherzino mexicano
- Estudios de concierto
- Elegía de la ausencia
- Tema mexicano variado
- Suite cubana
[edit] Songs
Ponce interacted with many important artists from the Mexican vocal scene during
- Estrellita (1912)
- A la orilla de un palmar
- Alevántate
- Marchita el alma
- La pajarera
- Una multitud más
- Tal vez
- Necesito
- Lejos de tí
- Lejos de tí II
- Cuiden su vida
- Si ajguna vez
- Que lejos ando
- Si algún ser
- Yo mismo no comprendo
- Isaura de mi amor
- Por tí mi corazón
- Marchita el alma
- Por tí mujer
- Soñó mi mente loca
- Tú
- Aleluya
- Cerca de tí
- Serenata mexicana
[edit] Chamber music
- Trio romántico, for violin, cello and piano.
- Canción de otoño, for violin and piano.
- Sonata, for cello and piano.
- Sonata, for guitar and harpsichord.
[edit] Orchestral works
- Chapultepec
- Instantáneas mexicanas
- Poema elegíaco
[edit] Concertos
- Concierto Romántico for piano and orchestra (1910)
- Concierto del sur for guitar and orchestra (1941)
- Concierto para violín y orquesta (1943)
[edit] Notes about the works
An important group of Ponce's works were previously unknown to the public, as self-proclaimed heir Mr. Carlos Vázquez, Mexican piano performer and educator who studied with Ponce, kept most of the original manuscripts under his possession. Most of them were finally donated to the National School of Music (UNAM) in Mexico City, as an analytic catalogue of his works could still be published.
One of Ponce's melodies still heard today in various arrangements is "Estrellita" (1912).
[edit] Bibliography
- Corazón Otero: Manuel M. Ponce y la guitarra, Mexico 1980. First published in English by Musical New Services Limited, UK in 1983, 1994 ISBN 0-933224-84-2
- "Andrés Segovia, Manuel M. Ponce, Miguel Alcázar, Peter Segal: "The Segovia - Ponce Letters", Columbus, OH, Editions Orphée, 1989 ISBN 0-936186-29-1
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